Mark

From what I've read over the years, a certain amount of "regrind" plastic is actually desirable, as it makes the finished product less brittle. I don't know if it's true, but I always thought that vintage Jo-Han kit plastic used less of the stuff, and so ended up more brittle than other manufacturers' plastic.

The front mount blower and wheel "pants" were probably added to let you take the streamlining another step or two further. Carl Casper did race a few 1:1 dragsters, but this one was more of a show car. I'll be getting my hands on one of these to see if it can be reworked to resemble Tommy Ivo's short-lived streamliner dragster.

The Radial Tuned Suspension package consisted of a small emblem, attached to the dashboard...

I've bought multiple sheets from Gooche on eBay; she will do combined shipping.

Where is the chrome rear bumper shown on the box? One caption does read: "chrome bumpers"; that's the only error in the box art. "Optional step bumper" is a correct caption; it is "optional" as opposed to no rear bumper at all, which is the way a lot of these trucks were delivered back in the day.

I'm not positive, but I think the last issue of the Charger (AMT Buyers' Choice, yellow car on the box) had a couple of small parts from the Thunder Charger on the chrome tree. It might have been headlights or a grille insert, something like that.

AMT '61 and '62 Buick Special station wagons; the '63 Nova wagon includes the same engine but with more of the parts plated. The Boss Nova rear-engine thingy has it too. Similar to the Double Dragster's early Hemi, but with nicer valve covers and a couple of intake setups that aren't in the dragster kit. The Revell '41 Willys coupe street machine has an early Hemi also. A lot of it is shared with the drag version, but this one has a Torqueflite transmission instead of a GM Hydramatic, and it has block-hugger headers and a streetable water pump/alternator setup.

They vary wildly. Some are very good, but I've got a '67 Cyclone annual kit sheet that is so pixelated that is unusable. Most are scans of original sheets, probably not quite as good as originals but much better than nothing.

I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere (or maybe I overlooked it)...did Revell wipe the "Chrysler Fire Power" lettering from the valve covers?

If you keep switching drill bits back and forth, after a while the pin vise won't tighten around the smaller bits. Especially with the cheaper pin vises made of softer aluminum. The bits are a lot harder than the aluminum and the corners of the "X" in the pin vise will crush around the larger bits. If you don't tighten it enough and the bit snags in your work, and the pin vise turns but the bit doesn't, then you get even more wear. Get a couple of good pin vises to use with the smaller bits that you use most often (you might have a couple of favorite drill sizes for ignition wiring or pins to anchor small parts). Don't use those with the larger bits. For larger bits, you can get steel collets. Check the tools/supplies section on eBay; a few vendors sell collet sets for cheap.

The interior is very simple; just the seat with the interior side panels attached. The floor was a separate piece, so it could be used to build the car with or without fenders (without, the body sits lower on the frame). Does your parts box body have the trunk lid glued shut, or is it part of the body? If it is part of the body, then you have the body from the first issue roadster. Later issues had a separate rumble seat lid.

The chassis with the exhaust system molded on, is from a Premier kit. I've got a Premier Falcon kit with a chassis like that (even though Falcons didn't have a frame). I've got a Premier Studebaker Lark kit too, haven't looked at that one in a while but I think it too has a chassis like that.

At the post office where I do mailings for my employer, when someone comes in and forgets to fill something out, the clerk will let them step to the side, finish the paperwork, then be first in line to go back to that clerk. Sometimes the line gets pretty long, but I've yet to see anyone in line complain about them handling it that way. Most people do fill out everything they think they need while waiting in line, so if they've got the wrong form or are short something, it's usually an honest mistake. And then there's the DMV...at most places where I have worked, I've had to go down there and register a vehicle or two for the business. At one location you'd usually spend an hour or more there before you got to the front of the line. Every time I went, when I got near the front of the line, some clown would walk in, stroll up to the front, and say he was being taken care of but had to go out to his car and get something. Of course, none of us saw this guy in the hour or more that we were in line. Uh...nope...get to the back, buddy. I went to another location last week to register two cars for my employer; now they use those little number tabs like at the supermarket deli counter.

Greg is interested in the original custom parts in addition to the stock parts that were in the kit. Truth be known, some of those parts (like the grille) were pretty horrible looking though the ribbed bumpers do look great. The custom wire wheel covers were well done but aren't the best choice for that truck. The trans kit included some parts that were never in the original kit; for example, the interior parts (kit always had the custom seat and door panels, no stock ones).

AMT '64 Grand Prix

The Force 440 didn't include the mini-bike, the annual kit did, probably going back to the '75 when it was a Plymouth Roadrunner. My '76 kit has it.

With those early Monogram kits, what's in the box now is probably all that there is. I've compared a couple of the newer issues to the originals (looked at the '40 pickup yesterday). If you check the original chrome parts trees against later issue ones, you'll see that the tree is smaller in the recent kit, and original parts still in the kit are in different places relative to one another now. That would indicate that the tooling inserts have been moved around, or the old mold cut apart and sections of it rearranged. The question then becomes "what happened to the missing pieces". It's not like some AMT or MPC kits where the old and new trees look the same, with huge empty spaces between parts in the newer one. With those kits, parts have been blocked off by welding little blockages into the tool, to stop plastic from reaching certain parts. In those cases, in recent issues the blockages have been removed putting the parts back in. The original parts in those old Monogram kits would probably have to be reconstructed from scratch, like Revell finally did with the Tweedy Pie kit a couple of years ago.

X2...you must have a part to make a mold. Every once in a while, someone would ask me to cast a part they needed...I'd ask them if they had one, and they'd say "I've got the one for the other side" or something like that. Unless the "other side" part was exactly the same, it's of no use. It's not like you can turn the mold inside out and use it to produce a mirror image part. Too, if you need only one of a particular item, in most cases it will cost less to simply locate another kit as opposed to making molds and casting parts.

The Jeep block is more accurate, but it's a typical Monogram late-Seventies "lump". The Revell J-20 (Honcho) pickup is about the same, unfortunately.

Should have used a Suzuki Samurai...

But the manufacturer didn't put a sticker on the dashboard saying that the car isn't submersible...

I remember seeing his products when he had a space at the Carlisle swap meets in the early Eighties. That was back when you could get decent promotionals there...of course they were only a few years old back then...

Seats/console are AMT '66 Fairlane (the original annual kit, not the new-in-1993 one).

Hobby Lobby resets their inventory twice a year, at least in the model kit section of stores in my area. One such reset takes place in mid-winter, another in June/July. The first phase (discounting kits that won't be stocked again after the reset) has started. Right now, it looks like the Revell Roth '57 Chevy, Revell '37 Ford coupe, Revell custom '50 Olds, AMT '58 Plymouth, AMT '60 Ranchero, AMT '69 Chevelle convertible, and '70-1/2 Baldwin-Motion Camaro (among others) are "out". Not necessarily discontinued by the manufacturers, but just won't be on the shelves there anymore. New data stickers yet to be added to the shelves will indicate what will be "in". I'd almost bet on the Revell Ford wagon and the MPC '79 Trans Am, probably the Revell Starsky and Hutch Torino whenever that one touches down...

Top one is from one of the Revell 1962 Mopar kits. I'd guess the '62 Plymouth Fury. The Valiant and Lancer chassis had single exhaust (as did, inexplicably, the Imperial). That knocks it down to the Chrysler Newport convertible, Dodge Dart, and Plymouth Fury. The stock Chrysler was molded in tan/light brown, the Dodge in red...that leaves the Plymouth. Lower chassis is from a Plymouth Barracuda kit, probably an early one ('65-'66).